Red Sox fans and Yankees fans are sworn enemies (except if you’re married or have siblings that are Red Sox / Yankees fans. Then you’re only enemies for the weekend). However, if there’s one thing all baseball fans have in common, it’s the love for Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who is retiring after the 2013 season.

Erik Boland of Newsday (@eboland11 on Twitter) took a picture of a poem that was in the dugout before today’s game, and although it’s not Rivera’s official goodbye gift, it was still beautiful. For those who have trouble reading the poem, here’s the poem below.

I have to admit that I get the crankies When somebody mentions the damn New York Yankees

I just do not like them, it’s one of my gripes They strut around wearing their fancy pinstripes

There is one exception, someone I don’t blame A prince of a fellow, Rivera’s his name

He’s top notch, a class act, the finest you’ll meet He helps sweet old ladies while crossing the street

It’s hard not to like him although he’s a foe He’s a wonderful guy, he’s Mariano

In closing out ball games, well, it’s understood He’s the best of all time, that guy is good

He’s saved games forever, to tell you the truth I think that he played with both Gehrig and Ruth

Were he’d not a Yankee, he’d rate an A plus Good luck, Mariano. But not against us

– Dick Flavin Poet Laureate, Boston Red Sox

Although it’s not fancy as Mariano’s chair made out of broken bats, this one is beautiful since it was from the heart. Just an incredible tribute to an incredible man.

2 thoughts on “Red Sox fan writes poem for Mariano Rivera”

The poem was written by Dick Flavin not Dick "Marvin" BTW. He's a Boston TV personality (won 7 Emmys), day game PA announcer at Fenway Park & Poet Laureate. Flavin once drove Johnny Pesky & Dom Dimagio to Florida to see their lifelong friend Ted Williams in a trip immortalized in David Halberstam's book the "The Teamates".